1955 film
Queen Bee is a 1955 American film starring Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Betsy Palmer, and Barry Sullivan. The film was directed by Ranald MacDougall and produced by Jerry Wald. The screenplay by MacDougall was based upon the 1949 novel The Queen Bee by Edna L. Lee.
The film tells the story about a Southern family dominated by a ruthless woman and the havoc her threats and intimidation cause to those around her.
Plot
Eva Phillips (Joan Crawford) dominates her Georgia mansion and her facially-scarred husband Avery (Barry Sullivan), nicknamed "Beauty", an alcoholic mill-owner who hates her. A cousin, Jennifer Stewart (Lucy Marlow), is pressured into moving in with the family, and she watches in horror as Eva maneuvers to prevent the marriage of Avery's sister Carol (Betsy Palmer), an equestrian, to Avery's business manager Judson Prentiss (John Ireland), who had secretly been involved with Eva in the past. Jennifer learns that Eva stole Avery from house guest Sue McKinnon (Fay Wray), who has been mentally disturbed ever since.
Jennifer briefly dates Sue's suave brother Ty, but it doesn't last long. Meanwhile, as tension builds among the various denizens of the mansion, Avery shoots Eva's terminally-ill dog, telling people to lie to Eva and say the dog had died naturally. Jennifer says she doesn't like to lie, and Avery says Eva would prefer to be lied to.
Carol tells Jennifer to watch out for Eva, and that she read a book about bees and feels that Eva is like a queen bee who stings all her competitors to death. Jennifer refuses to believe such bad sentiments about Eva, and eventually becomes her putative personal assistant, and a caretaker to the young Phillips children, Tessa and Ted. Ted persistently has intense nightmares about a fatal car crash involving his parents.
That same night, Eva and Jud have a meeting in a darkened room where he tells her that their relationship and anything they had together was over because he is marrying Carol. Eva rejects this and begins to kiss him, but Judson stops kissing her after a few seconds once he realizes that he is falling back into her trap.
Meanwhile, Jennifer witnesses this rendezvous from the top of the staircase and is shocked. Jud turns the light on and tells Eva that he is serious, and she warns him that he will ultimately be sorry for refusing her. When Carol and Jud's engagement is announced to Eva, Eva strongly hints at her former affair with Jud, and Carol commits suicide by hanging herself in the horse stable.
Avery catches nanny Miss Breen acting abusively towards the children, and fires her. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Avery are drawn together and share a furtive kiss when he tells her that he is aware of Eva and Jud's past. Eva senses the developing relationship and increases her malevolent actions; she insists Miss Breen continue as nanny, and tells Avery to not interact with Jennifer any longer. When he refuses, she threatens a scandalous divorce in the press.
Meanwhile, Jud, still guilty over Carol's death, leaves the house for a few weeks, but comes back one day for work. He finds out from Jennifer that it was really Eva who told Carol about his earlier relationship with Eva, not Avery as he had assumed. Now, for different reasons, both men are determined to avenge it.
Avery, after glancing over his gun cabinet, changes his outward attitude completely, and acts as though he is in love with Eva, even giving her an expensive bracelet. She changes her attitude and says that she is done being manipulative because her husband finally loves her. However, Jud sees through the charade and confronts Avery, stating that Avery's true motive for being nice to Eva is so that she will trust him enough so that he can kill her.
Jud preempts his plan on the night Avery intends to commit murder-suicide, and drives Eva to the fancy-dress party to which Avery would have driven her. When Eva discerns that he wants her dead, she frantically attacks him, resulting in a crash over a cliff, killing them both. Before learning of his mother's death, Ted has another dream about a fatal car crash. Now, Jennifer and Avery are free to love each other.
Reception
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noted "[Miss Crawford] is the height of mellifluous meanness and frank insincerity."[1] William K. Zinsser of the New York Herald Tribune wrote "Miss Crawford plays her role with such silky villainy we long to see her dispatched."[2]
Accolades
Queen Bee was nominated in two categories at the 28th Academy Awards in 1956 for Best Cinematography (Charles Lang) and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Jean Louis).[3]
